Great experience building this sectional, although would recommend pre-drilling the holes where practical to avoid splitting. It only happened to me a few times on #2 douglas fir, but I would have preferred to avoid it. As you can see from the picture, I didn't account for the siding taking up the space, and was expecting a perfect fit. Easily fixed with a bit of saw work, and now it's really custom fit for the space. :-)
I've added the details of the finish we used, and really happy with how it turned out, with the exception of my garage workshop lighting not revealing the spots I need to touch up now that it is in the natural light.
And of course, this is a terrific time to purchase couch cushions at the end of the season. Lots of great sales, and we found these at Target for $47 per top/bottom set.